HabsWorld.net --
There was a lot of negativity surrounding the
Habs this past week but at the end of the day, it was a successful one as the
team took two of three games. The Bulldogs were just as successful as they
won a pair to maintain a playoff spot in the West. With Alex Galchenyuk
out, many are hoping for someone to be called up but my Final Thought discusses
why an unpopular option may be the best one for the team.
|
Cheers |
Cheers to…
1) Carey Price. After what was one of his
worst weeks of the season, he bounced back by holding opponents to single goal
in both of his games. I wonder if the Team Canada announcement helped to
get him back on track.
2) The snapping of Andrei Markov’s goalless
drought. The Russian rearguard hadn’t scored in nine straight prior to the
Chicago game. That contest also marked the first time in eleven that he
had more than two shots on goal. As a player expected to provide a lot of
offence from the back end, this is a step in the right direction.
3) The return of defensive responsibility.
Before Monday’s matchup with Florida, the Habs were allowing just over 30 shots
per game on average. Their opponents failed to hit that plateau in all
three matches, averaging just under 25 per game.
Jeers to…
1) P.K. Subban’s penalty concerns and no, I’m
not referring to just the incident in Philly. Once again, Subban finds
himself among the league leaders in minor penalties for the fourth straight
year. He’s staying away from the fights/misconducts to keep his PIM total
down but he still is going to the box on far too much of a regular basis.
2) The last minute of play in the loss to
Philadelphia. I don’t have an issue with the decision to not pull the
goalie, each team does that once or twice a year on average. It happens.
What bugged me was that shortly after the team figured out that Budaj wasn’t
going to the bench, they took a penalty. That was a fitting response based
on their performance in the game but it’s fitting for all the wrong reasons.
3) The struggles on the powerplay. I
won’t harp on their lack of execution this time but instead the surprising
difficulty they’re having gaining the zone. They’re allowing the defence
to force them into dump-ins far too often and there are too many players
standing around instead of trying to draw the defenders out of position to open
up better entry points into the zone. More movement is always encouraged
when the team has possession in the attacking zone but the same principle
applies to getting it there and right now, the Habs aren’t doing enough of it.
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StatPack: |
|
SKATERS |
|
# |
Player |
GP |
G | A | +/- | PIM | SH | TOI |
| 6 | Douglas Murray | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 | 36:48 |
| 8 | Brandon Prust | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 5 | 3 | 33:18 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 7 | 4 | 51:13 |
| 14 | Tomas Plekanec | 3 | 1 | 1 | E | 0 | 13 | 60:15 |
| 15 | George Parros | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 1 | 3:33 |
| 17 | Rene Bourque | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 6 | 36:54 |
| 21 | Brian Gionta | 3 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 11 | 54:26 |
| 26 | Josh Gorges | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 68:58 |
| 27 | Alex Galchenyuk | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 2 | 10:44 |
| 32 | Travis Moen | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 3 | 44:28 |
| 48 | Daniel Briere | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 6 | 42:22 |
| 49 | Michael Bournival | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 4 | 4 | 26:24 |
| 51 | David Desharnais | 3 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 3 | 56:28 |
| 53 | Ryan White | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 5 | 3 | 13:36 |
| 55 | Francis Bouillon | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 2 | 30:41 |
| 61 | Raphael Diaz | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 3 | 35:44 |
| 67 | Max Pacioretty | 2 | 0 | 2 | +1 | 0 | 13 | 59:54 |
| 74 | Alexei Emelin | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 0 | 2 | 41:24 |
| 76 | P.K. Subban | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 6 | 4 | 74:39 |
| 79 | Andrei Markov | 3 | 2 | 0 | E | 0 | 6 | 74:59 |
| 81 | Lars Eller | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 7 | 48:29 |
|
GOALIES |
|
# |
Player |
Record |
SV% |
GAA |
| 30 | Peter Budaj | 0-1-0 | .889 | 3.00 |
| 31 | Carey Price | 1-0-2 | .957 | 0.99 |
|
Scoring |
Goals: Max Pacioretty (19)
Assists: P.K. Subban (26)
Points: P.K. Subban (33)
+/-: P.K. Subban (+12)
PIMS: Prust/Subban (49)
Shots: Max Pacioretty (141)
|
Schedule: |
January 14: New Jersey vs Montreal
January 16: Montreal vs Ottawa
January 18: Montreal vs Toronto
|
The Dog |
The Bulldogs had three games in less than 48
hours against teams behind them in the Western Conference standings. They
did rather well, playing stifling defence en route to a 2-1 record over that
stretch.
|
News and |
– With Robert Mayer returning from his stint at
the Spengler Cup, Mike Condon was re-assigned to ECHL Wheeling. Joining
him was Drew Schiestel, meaning that the Bulldogs now have a skater they can
recall if injuries strike. Boy, it seems like it wasn’t long ago that they
had lots of depth…
– For the first time all year, Hamilton has
some continuity to their lineup. They have iced the same squad for each of
the past six games.
– Patrick Holland is scuffling a bit at the
moment. Not only is he goalless in his last thirteen games, he has just
one shot on goal in the past six contests.
– Lines from the most recent game:
Forwards:
Holland – St. Pierre – Andrighetto
Tarnasky – Dumont – Blunden
Leblanc – Macenauer – Thomas
Courtnall – Nattinen – Fournier
Defence:
Tinordi – Pateryn
Beaulieu – Ellis
Chouinard – Dietz
|
Results: |
January 10:
Hamilton 2, Rochester 1
January 11:
Rochester 3, Hamilton 1
January 12:
Hamilton 3, Iowa 1
|
StatPack: |
|
SKATERS |
|
# |
Player |
GP |
G |
A |
+/- |
SH |
PIMS |
| 2 | Greg Pateryn | 3 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 5 | 2 |
| 5 | Jarred Tinordi | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 9 | 0 |
| 7 | Darren Dietz | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 8 | Nathan Beaulieu | 3 | 2 | 1 | -2 | 10 | 9 |
| 9 | Justin Courtnall | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 12 | Maxime Macenauer | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 4 | 6 |
| 14 | Michael Blunden | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 8 | 0 |
| 20 | Louis Leblanc | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 8 | 4 |
| 23 | Joonas Nattinen | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 3 | 4 |
| 27 | Sven Andrighetto | 3 | 0 | 2 | -1 | 3 | 2 |
| 37 | Patrick Holland | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 1 | 0 |
| 40 | Gabriel Dumont | 3 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 11 | 0 |
| 44 | Morgan Ellis | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 4 | 4 |
| 47 | Stefan Fournier | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 3 | 11 |
| 59 | Joel Chouinard | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 3 | 0 |
| 74 | Nick Tarnasky | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 3 | 4 |
| 92 | Christian Thomas | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 3 | 4 |
| 93 | Martin St. Pierre | 3 | 0 | 2 | E | 6 | 4 |
|
GOALIES |
|
# |
Player |
Record |
SV% |
GAA |
| 29 | Robert Mayer | 0-1-0 | .926 | 2.02 |
| 34 | Dustin Tokarski | 2-0-0 | .958 | 1.00 |
|
Scoring |
Goals: Leblanc/Tarnasky (9)
Assists: Martin St. Pierre (20)
Points: Martin St. Pierre (27)
+/-: Ellis/Pateryn (+10)
PIMS: Stefan Fournier (75)
Shots: Gabriel Dumont (94)
|
Schedule: |
January 18:
Utica vs Hamilton
|
Final |
It appears that the Habs are going to avoid
calling anyone up to replace the injured Alex Galchenyuk, preferring to go with
a thin roster until Ryan White returns which should be sometime soon. If
something goes awry with that plan though, who would the best options be to get
recalled?
If they’re looking for someone to log some
minutes, Louis Leblanc is the logical choice. The young offensive players
(Andrighetto and Thomas) are in a bit of a funk right now and neither could play
in a third line role like Leblanc does. Patrick Holland is another option
and is one who has a bit of NHL time under his belt this year but he is the
midst of his worst hockey of the season despite seeing first line minutes
lately.
The more likely scenario is that they would
look for a fourth liner and move one of Brandon Prust or Travis Moen up.
In that instance, Michael Blunden may be the best option. I’m sure some of
you groaned after reading that but he actually has been a key cog for the
Bulldogs as of late. Nick Tarnasky is a popular choice based on his goal
total but it’s worth noting that he has just one non-empty net goal in his past
21 games.
Where am I going with this? When you
consider that the more plausible option is to call up a fourth line plug and the
likes of Tarnasky and Blunden are among the top choices to pick from, why not
stick with seven defencemen for a bit? If all that forward is going to do
is log 5-7 minutes of ice time without doing much of anything, the Habs would
probably be better off slotting in a defenceman on those shifts and keeping
their blueliners fresh. With four of their top five defenders going to
Sochi, it would be wise to find a way to help keep them rested as best as
possible these next few weeks and this is the best way to achieve that, even if
it’s not a popular one.
